Sampoerna opens new plant in Sragen

The country's second largest cigarette maker PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna inaugurated the operation of PT Aroma Sukowati in Sragen, Central Java, as its 27th partner in producing kretek (hand-rolled clove cigarettes).

Company President Director Martin G. King officiated the 9,625-square-meter factory by hand-rolling cigarettes during a ceremony on Saturday.

"The aim of opening the plant is to create jobs for the locals and to get close to tobacco farmers in this area," Sampoerna's Director Angky Camaro told the press.

Employing some 1,700 workers, mostly women, the plant will produce Sampoerna Hijau kretek cigarettes with a production capacity of 11 million cigarettes per week.

Angky was optimistic that kretek cigarettes would still dominate the country's market as it currently accounts for 92 percent of the market.

U.S.-based Philip Morris International Inc. acquired Sampoerna in March in a Rp 48 trillion deal.

Sampoerna had a 25-year build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme with Aroma for the plant. Both Angky and Aroma's president director Sri Yatin refused to give the investment figure.

The cigarette-maker collaborates with 26 other smaller factories -- owned by individuals, cooperatives or Islamic boarding schools -- in East Java, Central Java and Yogyakarta.

-- The Jakarta Post/Blontank Poer